I’m writing a travel journal, and I have a difficulty with tense because some of the contents relate to the present too.
Should I say “I told my friend that we are together. we were together or we had been together?”, if I’m talking about my girlfriend and me in the past, and now at the present time we are still together.
One more example is “I like/liked playing banana boat” which one should I write down in the journal?, if at the present time I still like to play it.
Also, when I want to comment about tourist attraction, should I use past or present tense?
ex. The Eiffel tower is/was so big and beautiful.
I told my friend that we were together
and I told my friend that we are together
are both possible. I think that as you are still together, most people would prefer to use the present tense.
I like playing banana boat
and
I liked playing banana boat are both possible.
If you are speaking about a specific time that you played it in the past, then it is likely that ‘I liked playing…’ would be best (even though you still like the idea of playing it).
In a similar way, both are possible, but I would use, ‘The Eiffel tower is so big and beautiful’ (because the Eiffel tower is still there and hasn’t changed since you saw it.)
Thank you very much.
No matter how much I learn about tense, they still confuse me.